Ex-officer denies kicking Holley in videotaped beating

Updated 10:43 pm, Thursday, June 6, 2013

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Former HPD officer Drew Ryser the fourth and final Houston police officer accused of wrongdoing in the 2010 videotaped beating of teenage burglar Chad Holley, stands in State District Judge Ruben Guerrero's 174th State District Court during his trial Monday, June 3, 2013, in Houston.
( James Nielsen / Houston Chronicle ) less

Former HPD officer Drew Ryser the fourth and final Houston police officer accused of wrongdoing in the 2010 videotaped beating of teenage burglar Chad Holley, stands in State District Judge Ruben Guerrero's ... more

Photo: James Nielsen, Staff

Ex-officer denies kicking Holley in videotaped beating

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Call it "The Rugby Defense."

Drew Ryser, a former Houston police officer on trial in connection with the 2010 videotaped beating of 15-year-old Chad Holley, testified Thursday that years of playing rugby trained him to plant his foot in the ground as he squared off on a suspect.

The 32-year-old learned to dig his heel into the ground so forcefully that the action was mistaken by the chief of police as a kick to the teenager's head. Ryser, however, said the move was just "muscle memory."

"After I was told I was a liar by the chief of police, I went back and looked at what I did," Ryser testified in his own defense. "It's a rugby move called, unfortunately, a 'stab step.' "

His attorney, Lisa Andrews, spent almost an hour eliciting testimony from Ryser about spending more than eight years playing rugby, then demonstrating the "stab step."

Before becoming a police officer, Ryser went to Ohio to better his chances of becoming a professional rugby player.

"I almost went pro," he said of being scouted by a Scottish team and an Australian team.

Prosecutors scoffed at the excuse and the rest of Ryser's testimony as they spent Thursday afternoon cross-examining him.

Hours on the stand

"Did your partner play rugby, too?" asked Jon Munier, one of two special prosecutors in the case. "Did you teach him that move or was he mimicking you when he kicked Chad Holley?"

Ryser spent hours on the stand defending his actions during the March 23, 2010, arrest and beating of Holley. The teen was later convicted in juvenile court.

Holley and other teens were fleeing a daytime burglary in a pickup as officers chased them through west Houston. When the truck stopped, Holley and other suspects jumped from the bed and ran from several police cars converging on them.

Ryser testified Holley was holding up his pants as he ran, leaving Ryser to believe he either needed a belt or had a gun in his waistband.

The teen can be seen on the video running down a fence line as a patrol car can be seen cutting him off.

Holley tries to hurdle the hood but falls, then flips on to his stomach with his hands on his head.

A half-dozen officers, including Ryser, ran to apprehend the teen. The officer said he ran up and squared off on the teen using the rugby step, a movement caught on video that HPD Chief Charles McClelland testified was a kick to the head.

The officer said he dropped to his knees and grabbed Holley's right forearm. The teen reacted by pulling his arm away and putting it under his body, Ryser said.

The officer said he believed Holley was going for a gun and started kneeing the teen's shoulder as he lay on the ground.

"I was trying to inflict pain to get him to comply," Ryser said. He also said he tried to "pop" Holley in the nose with his knuckles but missed and hit him in the back of the head with his closed fist.

One officer cleared

Ryser freely admitted he was trying to cause the teen pain to make him show officers his hands.

At the same time, he said, a half-dozen other police were punching, stomping and kicking the teen, which Ryser testified repeatedly that he did not see.

Ryser and three other officers later were indicted on charges of official oppression, a class A misdemeanor.

Two of those officers pleaded "no contest" to the allegations and were sentenced to probation. The fourth officer was found not guilty of any wrongdoing after a trial last year.

Ryser's trial, in state District Judge Ruben Guerrero's court, could go to the jury Friday.